USA > New York > Ulster County > History of Ulster County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers. Vol. II > Part 60
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" The day has dawned. The hour has come. The new Catholic church of St. Peter is finished and ready for divine service. Many hearts are, in consequence, thrilled through and through with delight and rightly. The new church is ' a thing of beauty' of which all our citizens are proud, and ' a joy forever' to the souls of the generous people of whose faith and zeal it is an enduring monument. The site on which the church is erected is the finest iu Rosendale. The ground is so elevated that the spire rises monument-like above the village. The place is most admirably adapted for a church edi- fice. Its picturesqueness is simply charming. Many places may sur- pass it in artificial beauty, but very few equal it in natural liveliness. Every variety of scenery appears to be represented. The design of the builling is simple, chaste, and ecclesiastical. The main front of the building is on the road winding towards the depot of the Wallkill Valley Railroad, and faces the village. The tower is on the northwest corner. The new rectory, which was commenced and brought to completion simultaneously with the church, is placed twenty-three feet away from the west side of the church, and fifty feet back from the front of the same. The two buildings foriu an L. and make a very picturesque grouping. The style of the building is what is known as the Early Decorated Gothie, which prevailed in England during the first part of the fourteenth century. The exterior faces of the walls of church and house are of Colabaugh or North River pressed bricks, ornamented with yellow Perth Amboy bricks and Amherst sandstone. The slopes of all the roofs and the elerestory between the windows are aInted with green and black slates in bands. The tower, turret, and porch are slated in like manner. All the exterior façades of the church and rectory are equal in finish. The tower, located as before described, is sixteen fret square, surmounted by a broken spire and turret, which rise to an altitude of one hundred and fifteen feet. In the upper story of the tower is the belfry, having four large traceried windows filled in with louvre boards. The gables und turret are sur- mounted by ornamental crosses. The entire length of the church from the porch to the rear of the sanctuary is one hundred and twenty-eight feet. The width of the entrance front is sixty-one feet. The mialu approach to the church is through a spacious porch, twenty four feet
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HISTORY OF ULSTER COUNTY, NEW YORK.
long and ten feet and six inches decp. In the centre of the porel, and also in the centre of the end wall of the nave, are large double doors, swinging outward. The porch is lighted by an arcade of traceried windows running all around it. There is another entrance, through a large door on the west side of the tower. The length of the church from the end of the nave to the arch dividing the sauctuary from it is ninety- five feet. The interior width is fifty-three feet, which is divided into nave, thirty feet wide, and aisles, eleven fret six inches ench. The height from the floor to the apex of the roof is fifty feet. . Longitudinally the church is divided into seven bays by light columns of white pine, which support the elerestory and nave roof. The aisle and clerestory walls are perforated in the centre of each bay with large traceried windows. In the end wall of nave are two large traceried windows, over which is a circular window filled with tracery. Tho eutire construction of the elerestory and roof is of white pine, all of which is exposed, wrought, chainfered, and ornamented with geoutetrical tracery. Arched ribs span the nave from column to cohinin, transversely and longitudinally. The sanctuary is located at the end of the nave. It is twenty-one feet deep, is the width of the nave, and separated from it by a pointed arch. On either side of the gnetnary, and opening into it and the nave, is a small chapel. The ceiling of the sanctuary is vaulted and broken up with moulded ribs. On the east side of the sanctuary is a chapel, thirty-eight feet by eighteen feet six inches, for week-day celebrations and services. This chapel is well lighted, and is cutered from the outside by double doors ; there is also an entrance to it from the church. On the west side of the sanctuary are located two sacristies. These are entered froin the outside and from the church. There is a passage behind the altar, leading from the saeristies to the chapel. At the main entrance, opposite the sanctuary, is a gallery for the choir and organ. This gallery is all open-timbered, planed and chamfered, the front being paneled and moulded. The seats and ends are made of chestnut. The ends aro paneled, chamfered, and moulded. The windows are filled with stained glass. The whole interior will be decorated in polychrome. The rectory is of a design harmonizing with the chureb. It is fifty-two deep, thirty-eight feet wide, and three stories high. It is built in the form of an irregular Greek cross. The four gables over- hang, are supported on bracket ., and filled with tracery. The internal angies are filled out on first story with piazzas. There is a cellar under church and rectory, in which is located the heating apparatus."
Thus was this beautiful work of art brought to comple- tion. The people laid their gifts generously upon the altar of the church. They were building, not for themselves alone, but for their children, and their children's children.
The contracts with the carpenters and masons amounted to $26,500, and other expenses, finishing and fitting up, increased the cost to 831,000. The present number of members may be stated at. 1400, and the congregation averages 800 every Sunday. When it is remembered that the first mass was celebrated only thirty years ago, with barely two dozen present, the magnitude of the work ac- complished is clearly seen.
The pastor pays a warm tribute to the zeal and faith of his congregation, modestly assigning the great success to their energy and devotiou.
VIII .- BURIAL-PLACES.
These are quite numerous for a town of small area. Among those of early times may be mentioned the oue somewhat away from the road, above the residence of George W. Le Fevre. There is another of perhaps equal date near the Webster Lock. In connection with the Fricuds' meeting-house upon the Rosendale plains is a burial-place commenced about the time the Monthly Meet- ing was established. Auother, southeast from the meeting- house, is also quite old. Two solitary graves of the Tilson family are seeu near the road on the way to Rifton. The
new one near the Reformed church of Bloomingdale occupies a handsome level płat that with sufficient labor might be made a handsome cemetery. The Le Fevre family lot, on the main road, is a very neat ground, securely walled, and kept with a elean, neatly-shaven sod,-one of the simplest and yet one of the best methods of preserving a burial-place in good condition. Near the well-known Cornell homestead, on the old Rosendale farin, ou a finely-rounded knoll, are a group of gravestones. Among the inscriptions are
"John Woodmancy, died Jan. 3d, 1832, aged 31." "John Ashton, died April Sth, 1849, aged 90."
"James Howe, died Sept. 2nd, 1864, aged 62." " Andries A. Dewitt, died March 10, 1831, aged 90."
Near the Catholic church. there are many burials, dating from the time when the first church was built down to the opening of the new Catholic cemetery on the plains. This brief catalogue is probably not complete, but it indicates the most of the places of interment. We add, notices of the two rural cemetery associations, regularly formed under the laws of the State :
ROSENDALE CEMETERY ASSOCIATION.
This organization was formed May 19, 1869. William H. Snyder was chairman of the meeting, and S. Schoon- maker secretary. The trustees ehosen were C. T. Hazen, Jonathan Auchmoody, S. P. Keator, Silas Snyder, Simon Van Wagenen, Daniel Bodley, John T. Drake, S. Schoon- maker, Elias Deyo. The instrument was verified before S. B. Gallagher, justice of the peace, and recorded May 20, 1869. The association have laid out a large cemetery near the village of Rosendale Plains. The grounds are level, of sandy soil, and considerable work has been done in laying out and beautifying them. Several very fine monuments have been erected.
ST. PETER'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CEMETERY ASSOCIATION OF ROSENDALE.
This organization was incorporated Sept. 29, 1872. John Freston was chairman of the muccting, and John Dimou secretary. The trustees chosen were William Hening, John Freston, Johu Murphy, John C. Nash, Peter Conner, Lau- rence Ferguson, John Welsh, Dennis King, John MeEroy. The certificate was verified before S. B. Gallagher, justice of the peace, and recorded Oet. 2, 1872. This association has also secured a handsome location on the plains, nearer to the village of Rosendale. Though the whole enterprise is still recent, a fair beginning has been made in the laying out and adornment of the grounds.
IX .- SOCIETIES.
At Creek Locks there is a lodge of Good Templars, or- ganized May 16, 1868, and known as Bon Ami Lodge, No. 578. It has maintained steady work for twelve years, and is in a prosperous condition at the present time. Among the officers for the current quarter (March, ISSO) are Alva Schoonmaker, W. C. T .; Zada Moull, W. V. T .; Fritz Leibert, R. S. ; James Cole, F. S .; George Byford. Treas. ; Jacob Moull, Chaplain. At Rosendale Plains is another lodge of Good Templars, known as " Rising Star," and this has also been in existence for some years, and wielded con- siderable infineuee in moulding publie sentiment, At
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TOWN OF ROSENDALE.
Rosendale village was also a lodge of the same order for a few years, now eensed to work. There have been other associations occasionally for social improvement or for church work.
X .- PLACES OF HISTORIC INTEREST OR SPECIAL NOTE.
Gen. Washington was entertained in Rosendale by Col. Hardenbergh. This was upon the well-known Rosendale farm, where au inn was kept as early as 1711. The house is of stone, and was for a long time the office of the loan commissioners of the county. It is the well-known Cor- nell place of recent years, the residence of the late Mrs. M. C. Cornell. Col. Jacob Butsen, one of the early patentees, is said to have resided here. The farm deeded to him, already mentioned, was bounded in part upon the old Rosendale farm, and very probably he resided here. The original Rosendale farm was a tract of 600 aeres. Fifty years ago or inore it was divided by Charles Ruggles, for the heirs of previous proprietors, into three lots of 200 acres each. John Woodmancy (father of Mrs. Thomas Cornell) pur- chased the lot with the old homestead upon it, Timothy Tillson, another of the lots, and Jacob A. Snyder the third.
The old ford in the centre of what is now Rosendale vil- lage was a very aneient crossing-place. The small army of Clinton, who marched to the relief of Kingston, but was one or two days too late to resist the British attack, passed over the Rondont at this ford, and moved over what is known as the Green Kill ford to the vicinity of Whiteport.
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Gen. Washington is also said, in local tradition, to have drank from the spring near Norton's Cement-Works at Keator's Corners. It was known as the "King's Foun- tain."
The Deep Gorge, with the railroad-bridge spanning it, attracts much attention. The bridge is 900 feet long and about 160 feet above the bed of the stream. The view from the bridge is very fine. From beneath the visitor looks up in wonder at this seemingly light structure sus- pended in mid-air, over which trains of ears daily pass and repass. The bridge is evidently very strongly built. It eonsists of five spans of equal length, with a shorter one at cach end, -- seven in all. The supporting pillars rest upon heavy butments of masonry ; cach group consists of four, with two additional ones bracing the others, and the whole strongly bound together.
In the southwest part of the town there are several eaves in a ledge of rocks upon the Shawangunk range. Ice is found in these eaves throughout the year.
In all parts of the town there are many places worthy of special attention by the traveler and the practical geol- ogist. The quarries, with their leng tunnels, piercing deep into the mountain-sides; the sharp precipices ; the beautiful lakes; the rough, eraggy hill-sides; the secluded Flens, and the wild ravines, -have a thousand attractions. The busy scenes of labor, the hundreds of workmen, the freqnent explosions in the blasting of the rocks cchoing along the mountain-sides, the ceaseless clang of the mills, and the noise of the associated industries,-all add to nature's pictures, and continually blend the. " useful with the om :- mental," the works of man with the works of God.
XI .- INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS.
The manufacture of cement, being so prominent in this town, virtually overshadows all other interests. Taken in the aggregate, however, the agricultural productions are of considerable value, as shown in the statisties herewith ap- pended. The soil is chicfly a sandy loam. Along the streams there are fine farms of arable land. Upon. the Rosendale plains there is a large tract of level land, and though the soil is light and sandy, yet, under thorough cultivation, it yields a fair return, and good farms have been the result of steady, systematie eulture. The old Rosendale farm, often mentioned, embraced a most bean- tiful valley, lying along the Rondout, and extending back toward: the hills. The location of the old Cornell man- sion, inelosed in the rear right and left by the high range, is decidedly picturesque. No wonder the first settlers gave to this place the poetical name " Rosendale." Its quiet beauty even yet justifies the appellation.
INDUSTRIAL STATISTICS.
The value of the farts in Rosendale, according to the eensus of 1875, was $726,500; buildings other than dwellings, $94,012; stock, $70,640; tools and imple- ments, $25,103; cost of fertilizers, $200; gross sales, 851,859; aeres plowed, 2119; acres pastured, 1977; aeres mown, 2113; hay produced, 3223 tons; grass- seed, 35 bushels; barley, 435 bushels; buckwheat, 5392 bushels; eorn, 16,277 bushels; oats, 12,350 bushels ; rye, 4988 bushels; spring wheat, 663 bushels; winter wheat, 1986 bushels; corn fodder, 2 acres; bens, 70 bushels ; peas, 41 bushels ; potatoes, 18,493 bushels ; apples, 17,741 bushels ; cider made, 656 barrels; grapes, 500 pounds ; wine, 40 gallons ; maple-sugar, 56 pounds; maple-syrup, 11 gallons; honey, 380 pounds; horses on farms, 346; mules, 6; value of poultry, $3888; value sold, $762; value of eggs sold, $2431; neat cattle on farms, 307; milch cows, 397; beef slaughtered, 26; butter made, 42,050 pounds ; milk sold, 1400 gallons ; slicep shorn, 66 ; weight of elip, 238 pounds; lambs raised, 70; sheep slaughtered, 14 ; killed by dogs, 7; swine on farins, 646 ; pork juade previous year, 79,219 pounds.
MILLS.
On the Green Kill is located the grist-mill of Richard T. Dewitt. This was built by him in its present form in 1849. It stands upon the foundations of the one he took down, which he describes as an ancient affair. It was erected before the Revolution, and perhaps about the time marked upon the venerable Dewitt dwelling-honse near by, -1736. There is a tradition that this mill, with others mentioned below, dil the grinding a few years for people to the southwest, even to the Mamakating Valley; that customers came from sneh a distance they were compelled to stay overnight, so that a miller really needed to open a tavern as au accompaniment to his mill. Flour is said to have been drawn from this mill for the American army stationed at Newburgh before the burning of Kingston. The mill was also marked for destruction by the British, but they failed to reach the place.
Two other mills below, near the mouth of the Green Kill,
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HISTORY OF ULSTER COUNTY, NEW YORK.
were owned, one by Petrus Smedes and the other by Jo- hannes Du Bois. These were very early. The name of Petrus Smedes appears in church records 1750 to 1763. These mills were on the site of the present cement-mills of Conley & Shaffer.
THE MANUFACTURE OF CEMENT.
This is the most important industry in Rosendale, and the source of great wealth. In making preliminary inves- tigations with reference to the digging of the Erie Canal, Mr. Canvass White was sent to Europe to obtain informa- tion upon engineering and construction. It was supposed that hydraulic eement would have to be imported from Europe to lay the stone-work beneath the water. But in 1818, Mr. White discovered the much-desired material at Chittenango, Madison Co. He afterwards applied to the State for the exclusive right to manufacture the cement for twenty years. This right was not granted, but, as a proper reward for his investigations and his valuable discovery, the sum of $20,000 was voted to him. In developing plans for the digging of the Delaware and Hudson Canal it was supposed that cement must necessarily be brought from Madison County, and the work was commeuced with that expectation.
Benjamin Wright was the first chief engineer on the Delaware and Hudson Canal. John B. Jervis succeeded him. With both these men was associated as assistant engineer Mr. James S. McEntee, how residing at Rondout. (See biography.) Mr. McEntee was personally cognizant of all the facts attending the discovery of cement and the first steps takeu to manufacture it. This notice is written from items furuished by him directly or from articles pre- pared by his son for the Rondout Freeman a few years since. Mr. Rensselaer Schuyler had taken a contract to build thirty locks, and commeneed one in 1825. For this purpose cement was brought from Chittenango. During the summer of 1825 the engineers discovered at High Falls the cement rock, and in the fall of that year determined its value by careful experiments. The first specimens of rock were burned in a blacksmith's forge at High Falls, reduced to powder by pounding, and then the material tested by actual use. It was found to be of excellent quality, and it was at once decided that no further purchases from Chitte- nango would be necessary.
During the following winter the necessary preparations to manufacture here for use upon the canal were made. Mr. John Littlejohn entered into a contract to furnish whatever eement was needed for this canal. In the spring of 1826 he conuenced quarrying, burning, and grinding. The first kiln was near the sulphur spring below High Falls, about where James HI. Vandemark's kilns are at the present time. The burnt stone was drawn to the old Simon De Puy mill and ground. Then it was drawn in bulk to where it was to be used, and shoveled into sheds. Tight wagon-boxes were used, and Mr. MeEntee measured them and determined the quantity they would hold, and was thus familiar with all the details of the discovery and the manufacture. He was then boarding at Simon De Puy's, and knew about the con- tract to grind.
When the De Puy mill proved insufficient to do the
grinding other inills were creeted. When the canal was finished this early manufacture ceased. Mr. Littlejohn completed his contract for the eanal and elosed the works.
No one was then manufacturing for the general market. The first man to revive the business and manufacture for shipment was Judge Lueas Elmendorf, the man from whom the Lucas turnpike takes its name. He commeneed quarry- ing and burning cement where the village of Lawrenceville is now located, and the grinding was done in the old Snyder mill. Soon after the opening of this business by Judge Elinendorf the Hoffmans also embarked in the business, at what is now Hickory Bush. Judge Elmendorf was suc- eecded by Watson E. Lawrence, from whom the village afterwards received its name. He continued in the business until his death. The Hoffmans after a few years closed their works. About that time Ilugh White, after whom Whiteport is named, established extensive works at this place. During the construction of the Croton Aqueduct he had extensive quarries and four mills making cement for that great work. One mill stood just east of the Green Kill grist-mill, where its ruins may still be seen ; one still stands at the northern end of the mill-dam, near Whiteport, and another was in Whiteport.
Some fanciful traditions have been current about this dis- covery that seem to have little or no foundation. One is that a Roman or Italian was among the laborers on the canal, and that he discovered, from his previous Old World knowledge, that the rock was cement rock, and that he knew this because it was like Roman cement. Mr. Louis Bevier states that it is not like Roman cement, and Mr. Mc- Entec states that there was not. probably an Italian among the laborers, which reliable testimony, both scientifie aud practical, effectually disposes of this traditiou. Another account of the discovery, and one that has caused consid- crable discussion, claims that Ulster County eement was known very much earlier than the above dates, and that somebody had built a wall with it in early tiuies. This is pretty clearly disproved by the fact that the State paid $20,000 for the discovery of cement in 1818, the vote being taken at a time when Hon. John Brodhead, of Wawarsing, was in the Legislature, who would most certainly have op- posed such a grant if this valuable discovery had beeu muade years before in his own county.
This matter is very clearly explained as well as settled by the following letter, written by Jolm B. Jervis in 1878, upon the submission to him of statements by those who were discussing the subject, with different views of the discovery. The letter shows the scope of that discussion without further explanation :
" ROME, N. Y., O.t. S. 1878. " DEAR SIR,-Yours of the 6th instant with its inclosure is receive.l. By your letter and the documents with it I find an inquiry as to who first discovered cement in Uister County, James McEntee claiming that it was by the agents of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Com- pany, and J. W. Hasbrouck, Esq., that it had previously been discor- ered by one Elmendorf. I recollect very distinctly that when the canal wais commence ! (1825) the finding of hydraulic lime in the Rondout Valley was considered very important, and special agents were employed to search for it. The citizens of Ulster County took great interest in the canal. Among them, Hou. Lucas Elmendorf was very active in bringing to the canal company any information of facts in his possession that could further the enterprise.
"Judge E. possessed a large fund of local information, which be
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communicated very freely. It is rather surprising that either tho julge or any of his namesakes should have kept the matter so com- pletely covered that it was not known at the time.
" In my opinion, the cement to which Mr. Hasbrouck refers was that imade from magnesian limestone, a kind that may be ground, or it may be reduced by water, though it is more difficult to slack than carbo- nate lime. Tho magnesian lime makes a strong mortar aud has lightly cement quality, but it is quito different from what is known as hydraulic cement.
"The canal was commenced in the spring of 1825, and the cement was discovered during that summer. As to the claim that Ulster County hydraulic cement was manufactured and used before the want of it was felt by the Delaware and Hudson Canal, in my opinion has uo just basis in fact. It could hardly be possible such a discovery was known, and, contrary to ambition and interest, was kept close when a general call was made for such a discovery. I do not belicvo that Mr. Hasbrouck's informers meant to deceive, but I think they were quite mistaken as to the thing,-hydraulic cement.
" Very truly yours, " JOHN B. JERVIS."
When it is remembered that the writer of this letter was chief engineer of this canal, also of the Croton Aqueduet and of the Hudson River Railroad, his testimony, supple- menting that of James S. MeEntee, must be considered decisive. The supposition that the cement was used at an earlier date is also explained by the suggestion of Mr. Jer- vis respecting what he terins magnesian lime. This very readily accounts for a difference of opinion without dis- paraging auty one's memory or accuracy. As the geologi- cal discussion of the cement rock is given in the general history, it is only necessary here to add to this statement of discovery a brief account of the several companies engaged in the manufacture and shipment of ecmeut.
THE NEWARK AND ROSENDALE LIME AND CEMENT COMPANY.
During the autumn of 1847, Andrew Lemassena, Grant J. Wheeler, and Reuben D. Baldwin, of the city of Newark, N. J., purchased from Lewis W. Mansfield-brother-in-law aud successor to the property of the Hon. Hugh White, of Waterford, Saratoga Co .- the cement property at Green- kill,* now Whiteport, f and Hickory Bush; the said prop- erty consisted of three cement-mills, cooper-shops, store- houses, tenements, barns, cement quarries, and kilns, at the above-named places, and the wharves and storehouses ou the banks of the Rondout near Eddyville. They also pur- chased from other parties in the vicinity several traets of land containing deposits of cement rock. The following year (1848) they organized as a stock company, under a general law of New Jersey for the "incorporation of manufacturing associations,"# taking the name of "The Newark and Rosendale Lime and Cement Company."S The first board of directors consisted of John H. Stephens, President; Andrew Lemassena, Sceretary and Treasurer;
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